L.A.’s Pennsylvania-transplant Songbird Priscilla Ahn doesn’t seem intimidated by a city full of singer-songwriters. Her album is confident and honest. Her voice is light and young but with hints of adulthood that have creeped in between her new full-length release A Good Day (out June 10 on Blue Note) and her previous EP. Her songs like lucid dreams take their time in delivering their message which could help it to hold up on repeated listenings.

The whimsy of the album reaches it’s peak with the song-story “Astronaut” which listeners might find in the vein of the Ditty Bops with its “Being For The Benefit of Mr.Kite” instrumentation. It follows like a cloud with “Lullabye” which features some of the loveliest vocals on the record. Her voice would be like mixing a milkshake of Keren Ann and Delores O’ Riordan in a blender with some tiny smooth pebbles for texture. But like many albums. the A-side is the strongest while it’s B-side remains passable thanks mostly to a cover of Willie Nelson’s “Opportunity to Cry” and the albums titular closer. But this is by no means a weak showing.

Last month I’d recommended you keep an eye on her and after hearing the new album, i mean it. The musicianship is clean with a sound thats layered but not overproduced thanks to notorious hired gun drummer/producer Joey Waronker. (Beck, R.E.M.)

No doubt Priscilla Ahn will be involved in some heavy touring to promote A Good Day, should the opportunity present itself, go see her! More than likely she will be headlining within a year. Rating: 7.5/10

Tags: Blue Note, Hotel Cafe, Pennsylvania, Priscilla Ahn

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 3rd, 2008 at 2:57 pm and is filed under Los Angeles, Music, You should know:. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.